Roads; efficiency and budget. And maybe ownership.

The majority of the public believe roads are better left to government management. I often ponder this myself, but I find myself having less and less faith in government's ability simply to maintain roads.

I'm sure the situation is not the same everywhere, but the roads are falling apart in my part of Kentucky.

The state-run AA Hwy (Big corridor between Ashland and Northern Kentucky), which was built cheaper than originally designed, has pot-holes in a number of Other state roads are similar. They've put down some patches here and there, on the very worst, tire-bursting, alignment-destroying sections. But by no means are the roads "good". I'd give the state a solid C-.

The interstates aren't much better. In fact, I-71 between Cincinnati and Louisville is miserable. I am now avoiding I-71 completely. I recently went through Lexington to go to and from Louisville, as it wasn't much longer for me anyway. The best road in the state seems to be I-64 between Louisville and Lexington. At least the legislators make the roads in and out of Frankfort nice. I'd give the feds a D.

And yesterday, as I'm preparing this blog entry in-between other tasks, I was driving to a meeting of the LPKY/4 Bylaws Committee, and I found road construction blocking my way - and what a mess it was. But the best part were the pictures, where the workers are just sitting around talking and watching mangled rush-hour traffic, rather than doing something.

So, we'll take the state's C- and lower that to a D, for obvious and blatant wasteful spending.

Beshear says we're out of money, and perhaps that's part of the problem. But the huge tax break he just signed into law for the new owners of the Kentucky Speedway, for a foreign (non-Kentucky) corporation, could have been money used instead towards the roads for the public, that the government has assumed the responsibility of maintaining. Since when does a 2 mile circle track take priority over the roads people travel every day to keep this state's economy moving? The last I knew, NASCAR was not a necessary government service.

Perhaps private ownership of roads is something to talk about, again. In the current situation, the government forces people to "drive around", expending more fuel, and Frankfort sees higher tax revenues from fuel taxes (which they also slyly raised in the general session this year). At least with private ownership, those driving around would cause a negative financial impact on the owner, providing them with some incentive to fix their road(s).

Yes, tolls are annoying, and the only way to make them less annoying is to allow big brother to ride shotgun. But at least the private owner doesn't profit from people driving around.